Friday, April 25, 2008

Sex discrimination? Republicans say "Thumbs up!"

Picture this: you're a female employee, and you were hired to do the same job as the man sitting next to you, only at a dollar an hour less. Every week you both get paychecks, and every week his is bigger than yours. That means every time you get paid, your employer discriminates against you by paying you less than what they pay your male counterpart, right?

Well, not if you look at the world the way the Supreme Court looks at it, or now, the Republicans in the Senate.

Oh, but wait, there's another player involved! If you let women sue their employers, even for illegal discrimination, it might cost the employers money. And if that happens, the big corporations won't like it.

I guess it was an easy choice for them, but not in the way you'd want. Heeding the voice of their corporate overlords, the R's in the Senate voted to block consideration of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have allowed the courts to consider each deficient paycheck a new act of discrimination, thereby reversing the decision by the Supremes.

So the next time you think your paycheck seems a little light, if you're a woman, thank your Republican senator.

1 Comments:

Tom McC said...

Now, John, you're looking at it all wrong. Don't you see, as the Republicans can clearly explain to you, sex discrimination (like race or age discrimination) is no longer a problem that needs to be addressed. And the Supreme Court just proved it! So we do live in the best of all possible worlds.